Chocolates and Catholics

This weekend was yet another eventful one. On Friday the USAC group went to Assisi for a tour of the beautiful limestone town and gigantic cathedral. After a quick lunch and gelato we went to Perugia for a short tour and CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL. I felt inclined to eat as much chocolate as I possibly could, and lets just say I did my part. I can die.

We walked around and looked at the many stands, there were plenty to choose from. I kept my eye out for certain things and made note to return to certain booths. We stopped inside a café and Marco suggested we try a chocolate cake. We tried a hazelnut/chocolate cupcake thing that was quite delicious. We also tried a white chocolate one, but I was not as much of a fan of that one. My first purchase was chocolate pasta with fresh strawberries and powdered sugar. The actual pasta wasn’t that flavorful, but the combination of the strawberries and chocolate made me happy. Ricardo got chocolate pasta with white chocolate sauce. I wish I bought that one; it was like heaven in the mouth.

My next stop was for a chocolate banana, which was my favorite. I have a new thing for banana and chocolate. I don’t know what it is. It was just love at first taste. Ricardo tried a chocolate kebab, which I tried a lot of, and afterwards I thought I was defeated by chocolate, but no, not yet. I tried small pieces of other chocolates, Ricardo had to get some Venezuelan chocolate, and that stuff was dark and rich…I also tried a Bracio, with some sort of nut in it, and dark hazlenut chocolate from Torino. That one tasted like nutella and was delicious! At this point my stomach was mad at me. I still had wanted hot chocolate, but I wasn’t sure if I could handle it. I tried some other hot chocolates, and they were THICK, like chocolate soup. I wasn’t going to go through with it, but Jeff bought me a mint hot chocolate with whipped cream and I just had to do it. It was really thick and rich. Like eating chocolate clam chowder thick. I almost finished it but I couldn’t push myself to do it.

That night was the first night in FOREVER that I felt like I was actually going to vomit.


On Saturday Gaby, one of my roommates that I am in love with, and I went to the Vatican! We made a reservation for 1pm and we were able to walk past the long line and straight into the museum. The museum was amazing; there was so much to take in. After twenty-minutes I felt exhausted. We got to see the Sistine Chapel and we just sat and stared up for 10 minutes. I love Michelangelo.

Gaby wanted to go to the Hard Rock Café in Rome for American like food, and I had never been to a Hard Rock before so I decided I would let her take me on a date there.
I didn’t realize how caught up I had been in certain aspects of Italian culture until I entered that restaurant. It was a typical American restaurant, and the smell of fries and the English-speaking tourists threw me off. It made me actually miss those typical restaurants that I was so sick of before I left. It’s difficult to explain exactly how I felt while I was there, but I know that the first week or two when I return things are going to feel weird. Not saying “grazie” and “ciao”, just silly, basic things that I do everyday now and that have become habit that will be irrelevant in just two short months.



pictures to come!